Leap into your dance career with the Academy of Northern Ballet’s Professional Graduate Programme!
Are you an aspiring dancer aged 18–20, eager to transition from vocational training but not quite ready for a career as a professional dancer? The Academy of Northern Ballet’s Professional Graduate Programme offers a unique, one-year traineeship in the UK, designed to bridge that gap and propel you into the world of professional dance.
What is the Professional Graduate Programme?
This full-time, post-vocational, professional ballet trainee programme takes place at Northern Ballet’s award-winning headquarters in central Leeds, home to seven full size studios with excellent facilities, with the opportunity to train and perform alongside Company dancers.
Led by world-class teaching staff with an abundance of professional experience, our graduate ballet programme offers bespoke coaching and mentoring, preparing you for a career in a professional dance company.
Current Professional Graduate Programme students performing in Hansel & Gretel.
The Academy of Northern Ballet believes that pre-professional ballet training prior to professional career can enhance a dancer’s knowledge, technique, resilience and give experience into life as a Company dancer.
From classical and contemporary dance classes to opportunities to perform alongside Company dancers in our children's ballets and full-length narrative ballets, this pre-professional course not only bridges the gap from vocational dance to a professional pathway. It offers a unique opportunity to dancers that are often inaccessible before a full-time career.
Hear from our alumni
2023 Graduate and Northern Ballet Guest Artist
Maddie de Andrade
'Northern Ballet’s Professional Graduate Programme gave me the confidence and technique that I felt I needed to round off my professional training. . Since graduating, I have joined Northern Ballet as a guest artist to work on Beauty and the Beast, A Christmas Carol and Hansel & Gretel.'
2019 Graduate and Northern Ballet Company Dancer
Albert González Orts
'During my time at the Professional Graduate Programme my technique gained strength and confidence grew. I got the chance to perform with the Company in The Nutcracker and Puss in Boots, including being lucky enough to be part of filming the ballet for CBeebies which gave me touring and stage experience.'